Argyll

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Scottish region. For other uses, see Argyll (disambiguation).

County of Argyll until circa 1890

Geography
Area - Total	Ranked 2nd 1,990,471 acres (8055 km²)
County town	Inveraray
Chapman code	ARL

Argyll, archaically Argyle (Earra-Ghàidheal in modern Gaelic), is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western seaboard between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath.

The early thirteenth century author of De Situ Albanie explains that "the name Arregathel means margin of the Scots or Irish, because all Scots and Irish are generally called Gattheli [=Gaels], from their ancient warleader known as Gaithelglas." However, it is often understood to derive from Earra-Ghàidheal, "East Gaels". Argyll was a medieval Bishopric too, with its cathedral at Lismore, as well as an early modern Earldom and Duchy, the Duchy of Argyll.

Today Argyll is a registration county for property.

1 County and district
2 Constituency
3 Notable residents
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Further reading

[edit] County and district

Argyll (sometimes anglicised to Argyllshire) was a county of Scotland until 1975, when Scottish counties were abolished. At the time of abolition the county had boundaries as shown in the map. Argyll's neighbouring counties were Inverness-shire, Perthshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Bute. Renfrewshire and Ayrshire were the other side of the Firth of Clyde. Bute was a county of islands in the firth.

The county town was historically Inveraray, which is still the seat of the Duke of Argyll. Lochgilphead later claimed to be the county town, as the seat of local government for the county from the nineteenth century. Other places in the former county were Oban, Campbeltown, Dunoon and Inveraray.

The Small Isles were part of the county, until they were transferred to Inverness-shire in 1891, by the boundary commission appointed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889.

In 1975 the County of Argyll was abolished, with its area being split between Highland and Strathclyde Regions. A local government district called Argyll and Bute was formed in the Strathclyde region, including most of Argyll and the Isle of Bute from former county of the same name. The Ardnamurchan, Ballachulish and Kinlochleven areas of Argyll became part of Lochaber District, in Highland.

In 1996 a new unitary council area of Argyll and Bute was created, with a change to boundaries to include part of the former Strathclyde district of Dumbarton.